California seeing a sizable influx of new residents relocating from Texas
cbsnews.com
cbsnews.com
But it was only 40k vs 100k, which is pretty minor compared to the total populations (~30-40m).
I have lived in both states. The exodus from California has always been overhyped (there are articles from 20 years ago stating this). It only came to fruition after Covid.
This article is also a Bay Area (California) local news affiliate. It should be understood when reading it.
Despite the top income tax rate being the highest in the country, if you’re already rich, you can just own US Treasuries and earn around 5% for the next 30 years. US treasuries are not taxed at the state or municipal level anywhere, putting California on par with Texas, Florida and all other 0% income tax states, and all states. On $5,000,000 thats $250,000 a year, on $10,000,000 thats $500,000 a year.
Ah but you need the house! Property taxes…. California property taxes are lower than Texas and Florida.
so you are left with all the benefits of the weather and varied biome and varied geography that everyone wants to like
as the macroeconomic environment changes so do people’s behavior
there’s more to write about middle class, which can only be compared to other high cost of living areas, but thats for a different post.
If you were going to make a good effort argument, you would start with the largest expenses for an average family/household. Rent / home prices, food, car prices, gas prices, tuition, day care, utilities are all higher in CA than TX. The delta in property taxes is not significant when you consider that rent/property is far better (larger yard, more rooms, newer neighborhoods, etc) for most people in TX.
Also, the reason property taxes are lower in CA is because Prop 13 caps their growth rate until the property changes hands. The macro effect of Prop 13 is to create fewer transactions, this artificially reducing sale inventory and thus increasing property purchase prices. Your comparable annual upkeep may be a smaller percentage of the purchase price, but might end up being a larger dollar figure.
there are headlines about everyone being driven, and headlines about just the rich leaving but for the same reasons
the rich can navigate california extremely well
on the properties, yes a comparable costing property elsewhere would like be much larger in those other states, while the larger property in california being so much more expensive that the cash outlay for the possibly low % property tax is still higher, I’ll concede that